ScotWIT/BCSWomen/Women in Tesco: Inspiring Women in Technology 10/10/17
10th October marked a number of firsts; the first Ada Lovelace Day event for Tesco Bank, the first technology-focused event for Bank’s Women at Tesco network, and the first collaborative event with Scotland Women in Technology and BCSWomen Scotland.

About half the audience were from other organisations so, allowing our external attendees time to get away from work, we kicked off with the networking and introductions.

ScotWiT and BCSWomen don’t require you to be a member to attend their events, and they run events across Scotland throughout the year. The next ScotWiT event is their Awards Dinner on 26th October.

Lou Smith, one of two Fintech envoys for Scotland, then kicked off the proceedings, talking about her experience of other countries’ readiness for the next wave of new technology. There are new players using the new technologies to “nibble away at the edges” of established industries, and we need to be ready for both the opportunity and the threat. Scotland is well positioned to take in the FinTech challenge and in October this year, ‘FinTech Scotland’ was set up to be the voice and gateway for FinTech in Scotland. Lou also shared her views on culture, language and leadership, sparking some lively questions and discussion.

Susan Ramonat took up the baton, talking about the need to join up technology, using the example of medical devices to help a child and parent manage diabetes, so that different components and processes could join seamlessly, e.g. notifying when intervention was required, or when a device needed maintenance. Blockchain is about decentralised exchange & trust; a shared registry/ledger of transactions, with cryptographic proofs. We often talk about things like AI in the same breathe but they are not the same thing. This is a fast moving area and difficult to keep up with, but Susan proposed going back to Nakamoto’s paper on bitcoin as a starting point. She also talked about the challenges of relocating across countries, and letting go of the things you can’t bring with you.